Mr. Silverspoon sat down.
“What was the age of this pig, Mr. Bumpkin,” enquired the Judge.
“He wur ten weeks old, your lord.”
“Isn’t there a calf case, Mr. Ricochet, very similar to this?”
“Yes, my lord.”
“I think,” said Mr. Justice Pangloss, “it was tried in the reign of James the First.”
Mr. Ricochet, who knew nothing of the calf case, except what his Lordship had told him, said he believed it was.
“If this was anything,” continued Mr. Ricochet, “upon the plaintiff’s own showing it was a felony, and the plaintiff should have prosecuted the defendant criminally before having recourse to his civil remedy; that is laid down in the sheep case reported in Walker’s Trumpery Cases.”
“What volume of the Trumpery Cases is that, Mr. Ricochet?”
“Six hundred and fifty, my lud.”